MASTER 


NO 


7 


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Author: 


Rockefeller 


J 


Title: 

Mr. 


ledger 


Place: 

[New 

Date: 


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Rockefeller,  John  Davison,  1839- 

kr. Rockefeller's  ledger,  the  first  he  kept  and 
what  was  in  it:  lessons  for  young  men  from  its 
items,  saving  money  and  early  philanthropy; 
address  delivered  at  a  social  gathering  of  the 
Young  men's  Bible  class  of  the  Fifth  avenue 
Baptist  church,  Saturday  evening,  March  27,  1897. 
[New  York,  1897? 3 

[12]  p.  15|^  cm» 

On  cover:  Kirst 
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Mr.  Rockefeller's 

Ledger 

THE    FIRST    HE    KEPT    AND    WHAT    WAS    IN    IT 


Lessons  for  Young  (Men  from  its  Items 


Saving  Money  and  Early  Philanthropy 


ADDRESS 

Delivered  at  a  Social  Gathering  of 

THE    YOUNG   MEN'S    BIBLE    CLASS 

OF  THE  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  Church 

Saturday  Evening,  March  27,  1.897. 


ISSUED   BY   THE  CLASS 


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ONE    of    those    rare    occasions    upon    which 
John  D.  Rockefeller  is  prevailed  upon  to 
address  an  audience  came  recently  in  the  parlors 
of  the   Fifth  Avenue   Baptist  Church,  says  the 
New  York  Tribune.     Mr.  Rockefeller  was  one  of 
the  speakers  at  a  social  gathering  of  The  Young 
Men's  Bible  Class  of  the  Church.     Much  that  Mr. 
Rockefeller  had  to  say  was  extremely  interesting. 
In  laying  many    excellent  precepts    before   his 
hearers  he  brought  forth  several  lessons  from  the 
experiences  of  his  early  life.     By  references  to  his 
first  ledger,  as  he  called  it,  but  which  was  nothmg 
more  than  a  small  paper-covered   memorandum 
book,  Mr.  Rockefeller  explained  how  he  managed 
to  savemoney  e-^^^^      a  small  salary.     The  little 
book  contained  the  first  items  of  his  receipts  and 
expenditures  when  he  first  began  to  earn  money, 
and,  to  judge  from  the  care  with  which  he  handled 
thisVeminder  of  his  early  struggles,  Mr.  Rockefel- 
ler was  in  earnest  when  he  intimated  that  it  would 


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require  a  fairly  large  fortune  to  purchase  it.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  W.  H.  P.  Faunce  introduced  Mr. 
Rockefeller,  who  spoke  in  an  informal,  conver- 
sational manner  as  follows: — 

"  It  is  not  an  address  at  all  that  I  have  to  give 
you.  I  supposed  at  first  that  I  was  to  meet  here 
a  company  of  medical  students  and  young  men, 
and  I  had  prepared  a  little  address  for  them. 
Then,  when  I  came  in  here  and  saw  so  many 
gentlemen  of  mature  experience,  I  said  to  myself, 
*What  sort  of  students  are  they?'  Let  me  say 
that  it  gives  me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  to  be  here 
to-night.  Although  I  cannot  make  you  a  speech, 
I  have  brought  with  me  to  show  you  young  men 
a  little  book — a  book,  I  think,  which  may  interest 
you.  It  is  the  first  ledger  I  kept.  I  was  trained 
in  business  affairs,  and  I  was  taught  how  to  keep 
a  ledger.  The  practice  of  keeping  a  little  personal 
ledger  by  young  men  just  starting  in  business 
and  earning  money  and  requiring  to  learn  its 
value  is,  I  think,  a  good  one.  In  the  first  struggle 
to  get  a  footing — ^and  if  you  feel  as  I  did  I  am 
sorry  for  you,  although  I  would  not  be  without 
the  memory  of  that  struggle — I  kept  my  accounts 
in  this  book,  and  also  some  memoranda  of  little 
incidents  that  seemed  to  me  important.  In  after 
years  I  found  that  book  and  brought  it  to  New 
York.  It  is  more  than  forty-two  years  since  I 
wrote  what  it  contains.     I  call  it  Ledger  A,  and 


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now  I  place  the  greatest  value  upon  it.  I  have 
thought  it  would  be  a  little  help  to  some  of  you 
young  men  if  I  read  one  or  two  extracts  from  this 
ledger." 

EVIDENC2S  OF  EXTREME  ECONOMY. 

Mr.  Rockefeller  then  produced  from  his  pocket, 
carefully  enveloped  in  paper  wrapping,  the  ledger 
to  which  reference  has  been  made.  Proceeding, 
he  said: — 

**  When  I  found  this  book  recently  I  thought  it 
had  no  cover,  because  I  jaw  that  it  had  writing 
upon  its  back.  But  I  had  utilized  the  cover  to 
write  upon.  In  those  days  I  was  economical, 
even  withEaper.  When  I  read  it  through  it 
brought  to  my  mind  remembrances  of  the  care 
with  which  I  used  to  record  my  little  items  of 
receipts  and  disbursements — matters,  I  think, 
which  many  of  you  young  men  are  rather  careless 
about.  I  believe  it  is  a  religious  duty  to  get  all  the 
money  you  can,  fairly  and  honestly;  to  keep  all 
you  can,  and  to  give  away  all  you  can.  I  think 
that  is  a  problem  that  you  are  all  familiar  with. 
I  have  told  you  before  what  pleasure  this  little 
book  gives  me.  I  dare  not  let  you  read  it  through, 
because  my  children,  who  have  read  it,  say  that  I 
did  not  spell  tooth-brush  correctly.  But  then,  you 
know,  we  have  made  great  progress  in  our  spelling, 
and  I  suppose  some  changes  have  taken  place 


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since  those  days.  I  have  not  seen  this  book  for 
twenty-five  years.  It  does  not  look  like  a  modem 
ledger,  does  it  ?  But  you  could  not  get  that  book 
from  me  for  all  the  modern  ledgers  in  New  York, 
nor  for  all  that  they  would  bring.  It  almost 
brings  tears  to  my  eyes  when  I  read  over  this 
little  book,  and  it  fills  me  with  a  sense  of  gratitude 
that  I  cannot  express.  It  shows  largely  what  I 
received  and  what  I  paid  out  during  my  first 
years  of  business.  It  shows  that  from  September 
26,  1855,  until  January  i,  1856,  I  received  $50. 
Out  of  that  I  paid  my  washerwoman  and  the  lady 
I  boarded  with,  and  I  saved  a  little  money  to  put 
away.     I  am  not  ashamed  to  read  it  over  to  you. 

EARLY  CHARITY* 

**  Among  other  things,  I  find  that  I  gave  a  cent 
to  the  Sunday  school  every  Sunday.  That  is  not 
a  very  large  sum,  is  it?  But  that  was  all  the 
money  I  had  to  give  for  that  particular  object.  I 
was  also  giving  to  several  other  religious  objects 
and  what  I  could  afford  to  give  regularly,  as  I 
was  taught  to  do,  and  it  has  been  a  pleasure  to  me 
all  my  life  to  do  so. 

**  I  had  a  large  increase  in  my  revenue  the  next 
year.  It  went  up  to  $25  a  month.  I  began  to  be 
a  capitalist,  and  had  I  regarded  myself  then  the 
same  way  as  we  regard  capitalists  now,  I  ought  to 
have  felt  like  a  criminal  because  I  had  so  much 


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money.  But  we  had  no  trusts  or  monopolies  then. 
I  paid  my  own  bills,  and_alwa^^  ha^^ 
something  to  give~"awaj,„  and  the  happiness  of 
saving  some.  In  fact,  I  am  not  so  independent 
now  as  I  was  then.  It  is  true  I  could  not  secure 
the  most  fashionable  cut  of  clothing.  I  remember 
I  bought  mine  then  of  a  cheapTcIbthier.  He  sold 
me  clothing~"cheap^""cIothing  such  as  I  could  pay 
for,  and  it  was  a  great  deal  better  than  buying 
clothmg  that  I  could  not  pay  for.  /  did  not  make 
any  obligations  I  could  not  meet,  I  lived  wiilitwyny 
means  ^  and  my  advice  to  you  "young  men  is  to  do  just  the 

same, 

**Dr.  Faunce  has  just  told  you  that  all  young 
men  who  come  to  this  church  are  welcome,  and 
are  never  asked  to  whom  they  belong  or  where 
they  came  from.  But  there  is  just  one  question 
I  would  like  to  ask.  I  would  like  to  know  how 
many  of  you  come  from  the  city,  and  how  many 
came  from  the  country.  (Mr.  Rockefeller  asked, 
as  a  personal  favor,  if  all  those  present  in  the 
room  who  came  from  the  country  would  raise 
their  right  hands.  Fully  three  quarters  of  the 
number  did  so. )     Now,  what  a  story  that  tells  ! 

STRUGGLES  OF  COUNTRY  BOYS* 

**To  my  mind  there  is  something  unfortunate 
in  being  born  in  the  city.  You  have  not  had  the 
struggles  in  the  city  that  we  have  had  who  were 


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II 


reared  in  the  countxyy    Don't  you  notice  how  the 
men  from  the  country  keep  crowding  you  out 
here— you  who    have    wealthy    fathers?    These 
young  men  from  the  country  are  turning  things 
around  and  are  taking  your  city.     We  men  from 
the  country  are  willing  to  do  more  work.     We 
were  prepared  by  our  experience  to  do  hard  work. 
I  remember  a  little  time  ago  I  was  in  the  country, 
and  I  saw  a  carpenter  placing  mineral  wool  under 
the  roof  of  £  city  servant's  bedroom,  so  that  the 
man  should  not  feel  the  heat  of  summer  or  hear 
the  patter  of  the  raindrops  on  the  roof.     I  could 
not  at  the  time  help  recalling  the  experience  of 
my  boyhood  when  I  slept  under  a  roof.     I  could 
see  the  shingles,  and  I  remember  I  could  peep 
through  the  cracks  in  them.     It  was  pretty  hot  in 
the  summer  up  there,  too,  I  can  tell  you.     But  I 
think  I  was  better  for  all  that  sort  of  experience, 
for  having  been  reared  in  the  country  in  that 
sturdy,  practical  way,  and  my  heart  is  sometimes 
full  of  sadness  as  I  contemplate  the  condition  of  a 
number  of  young  fellows  in  this  city  whom  I 
happen  to  know  well. 

THE  EMBARRASSMENT  OF  RICHES. 

**They  are  in  the  embarrassing  position  that 
their  fathers  have  great  sums  of  money,  and 
those  boys  have  not  a  ghost  of  a  chance  lo  compete 
with  you  who  come  from  the  country  and  who 


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want  to  do  something  in  the  world.  You  are  in 
training  now  to  shortly  take  the  places  of  those 
young  men.  I  suppose  you  cannot  realize  how 
many  eyes  are  upon  you  and  how  great  is  the 
increasing  interest  that  is  taken  in  you.  You  may 
not  think  that,  when  you  are  lonely  and  find  it 
difficult  to  get  a  footing.  But  it  is  true  that  in  a 
place  like  this  true  interest  is  taken  in  you.  IV/im 
I  left  the  school  house  I  came  into  a  place  similar  to  this, 
where  I  associated  with  people  whom  it  was  good  to 
knoiv.     Nothing  better  could  have  happened  to  me. 

THE  MAN  WHO  IS  REALLY  POOR. 

**I  spoke  just  now  of  the  struggle  for  success. 
What  is  success?  Is  it  money?  Some  of  you 
have  all  the  money  you  need  to  provide  for  your 
wants.  Who  is  the  poorest  man  in  the  world  ?  I 
tell  you,  the  poorest  man  I  know  of  is  the  man 
who  has  nothing  but  money,  ;jothing  else  in  the 
world  upon  which  to  devote  his  ambition  and 
thought.  That  is  the  sort  of  man  I  consider  to  be 
the  poorest  in  the  world.  Money  is  good  if  you 
know  how  to  use  it. 

**  Now,  let  me  leave  this  little  word  of  counsel 
for  you.  Keep*a  little  ledger,  as  I  did.  Write 
down  in  it  what  you  receive,  and  do  not  be 
ashamed  to  write  down  what  you  pay  away.  See 
that  you  pay  it  away  in  such  a  manner  that  your 
father  or  mother  may  look  over  your  book  and  see 


\i 


just  what  you  did  with  your  money.  It  will  help 
you  to  save  money,  and  that  you  ought  to  do. 
When  I  spoke  of  the  poor  man  with  money  I  spoke 
against  the  poverty  of  that  man  who  has  no 
affection  for  anything  else,  or  thought  for  any- 
thing else  but  money.  That  kind  of  man  does 
not  help  his  own  character,  nor  does  he  build  up 
the  character  of  another. 

*' Before  I  leave  you  I  will  read  a  few  items 
from  my  ledger.  I  find  in  looking  over  it  that  I 
was-saidn2jnoiiey~all  this  tinG^e,  and  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years  I  had  saved  a  thousand  dollars. 
Now,  as  to  some  of  my  expenses.  I  see  that  from 
November  24,  1855,  to  April,  1856,  I  paid  for 
clothing  $9.09.  I  see  also  here  another  item 
which  I  am  inclined  to  think  is  extravagant, 
because  I  remember  I  used  to  wear  mittens.  The 
item  is  a  pair  of  fur  gloves,  for  which  I  paid  $2. 50. 
In  the  same  period  I  find  I  gave  away  $5.58.  In 
one  month  I  gave  to  foreign  missions,  10  cents ;  to 
the  Mite  Society,  50  cents,  and  there  is  also  a 
contribution  to  the  Five  Points  Mission.  I  was 
not  living  then  in  New  York,  but  I  suppose  I  felt 
that  it  was  in  need  of  help,  so  I  sent  up  12  cents 
to  the  mission.  Then  to  the  venerable  teacher  of 
my  class  I  gave  35  cents,  to  make  him  a  present. 
To  the  poor  people  of  the  church  I  gave  10  cents 
at  this  time,  and  in  January  and  February  follow- 
ing I  gave  10  cents  more,  and  a  further  10  cents  to 


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'"'., 


the  foreign  mission.  Those  contributions^  small  as 
they  were^  brought  me  into  direct  contact  with 
philanthropic  work  and  with  the  beneficial  work  and 
aims  of  religious  institutions^  and  I  have  been  helped 
thereby  greatly  all  my  life.  It  is  a  mistake  for  a  man 
who  wishes  for  happiness  and  to  help  others  to  think  that 
he  will  watt  until  he  has  made  a  fortune  before  givin, 
away  money  to  deserving  object s,^^  ^ 


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The  Young  Men's  Bible  Class  of  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Baptist  Church,  6  West  46th  Street,  of 
which  Rev.  R.  P.  Johnston  is  Pastor,  desires  to  be 
helpful  to  as  many  young  men  in  New  York  City 
as  possible.  It  invites  Pastors  and  friends  in  other 
cities  and  towns  to  send  to  the  Corresponding 
Secretary,  Robert  A.  Shaw,  6  West  46th  Street, 
the  names  and  addresses  of  any  young  men  whom 
they  know  to  be  in  the  city,  especially  those  who 
have  recently  come  from  the  country.  Members 
of  the  Class  are  glad  to  look  up  such  young  men 
and  invite  them  to  the  Class  and  Church.  The 
Class  meets  Sunday  mornings,  at  g.45,  under  the 
leadership  of  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr. 


'*All  young  men  who  come  to  this  Cbureb 
and  Class  are  welcome,  regardless  of  party, 
creed  or  residence.  The  great  question  for  us 
all  is  not  where  we  come  from,  but  where  we 
are  going  to." — Dr.  Faunce. 


*m 


The  Young  Men's  Bible  Class 


OF  THE 


FIFTH  AVENUE  BAPTIST  CHURCH 

4  TO  8  West  46TH  Street 
New  York  City 

JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER,  Jr.,  Leader 

All  young  men  who  are  not  members  of  any 
other  Class  are  cordially  invited  to  attend  its 
sessions  at  9.45  a.m.  Sundays,  from  October 
1st  to  May  31st  inclusive. 


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THE   CLUB 

II  West  45TH  Street 

All  active  and  honorary  members  of  the  Class 
are  eligible  to  Club  membership. 


».-♦ 


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